Tell a story and tell it well, and you may open wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.
People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them. For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times. They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.
“Most local stories are based on a larger theme,” American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says, “Cinderella(灰姑娘), or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”
Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories. She works with prisoners too, helping them know who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives. If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story. Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers. “For every advance in business,” she says, “there is a greater need for communication.” Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says.
Pugh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there. The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere, she says.
“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,” she says. “What I do is to focus on the value of stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs. We are all storytellers. We all have a story to tell. We tell everybody’s story.”What do we learn about American story tellers from Paragraph 2 ?
| A．They share the same way of storytelling. |
| B．They prefer to tell stories from other cultures. |
| C．They learn their stories from the American natives. |
| D．They find storytelling useful for both children and adults. |
The underlined sentence (Paragraph 4) suggests that prisoners can _____.
| A．direct films |
| B．settle down in another place |
| C．start a new life |
| D．become good actors |
Pugh has practised storytelling with _____ groups of people.
| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
What is the main idea of the text?
| A．Storytelling can influence the way people think. |
| B．Storytelling is vital to the growth of businesses. |
| C．Storytelling is the best way to educate children in school. |
| D．Storytelling helps people understand themselves and others. |
第三部分阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分, 满分40分）
阅读下列短文, 从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中, 选出最佳选项, 并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Making greener choices and encouraging healthy lifestyles can promote your health and benefit the environment．Here are some guidelines to follow:
Choose foods thoughtfully
Americans have never had such a variety or abundance of food to choose from．Besides so many choices, we now hear about our “food print”, the amount of land needed to supply one person’s nutritional needs for a year．Do we buy cherry tomatoes from Mexico or tomatoes grown loc
ally in a hothouse? Do we get the Granny Smiths from the farmers’ market or the supermarket? Is organic produce healthier for us and the planet?
These are very complex issues that require analysis of many criteria, including the energy used in producing and transporting the food, as well as the type of soil and methods of raising the food．
Despite the complexities, t
here are some general guidelines you can follow．For instance, eat less meat or eat low on the food chain．Your doctor may have recommended you to restrict your consumption of red meat because of its too much fat content．Beyond that, there are environmental reasons, too．Raising food animals contributes substantially to climate change because a meat-based diet requires more land, energy and water than a plant-based one．
Drinking plenty of fluids is significant during hot weather or when exercising．But is bottled water the way to go? You may not think so when seeing the true costs．Based on a survey, manufacturing the 30-plus billion plastic water bottles can produce more than 2．5 million tons of carbon dioxide and use three times the amount of water in the bottle．Adding in transportation, the energy used comes to over 50 million barrels of oil equivalent （等价物）．Consequently, skip the bottled water and drink tap water, both at home and at restaurants．Additionally, bottled water is not necessarily cleaner than tap．
1．In Paragraph 2 the author puts forward three questions mainly ______．
A．to prove Americans have less food to choose from
B．to show us the shopping habits of most Americans
C．to indicate Americans tend to buy food from abroad
D．to remind people to reconsider their food purchase
2．The doctor recommends eating less red meat partly because ______．
A．it contains too much fat
B．it costs a lot in transportation
C．it is too low on the food chain
D．it isn’t related to climate change
3．According to the text, which of the following is true?
A．Americans all prefer to buy cherry tomatoes from Mexico．
B．The plant-based diet is responsible for the climate change．
C．Americans have a variety of food to choose from．
D．Organic produce is the only choice for Americans．
4．Based on the last paragraph, we know that ______．
A．bottled water is cleaner than tap water
B．tap water is economical as well as eco-friendly
C．bottled water is more available than tap water
D．tap water uses one-third the cost of bottled water
5．What is the best subtitle for the last paragraph?
A．Skip bottled water, carry tap B．Drink bottled water
C．Produce plastic water bottles D．Save water resources
Memory, they say, is a matter of practice and exercise. If you have the wish and really made a conscious（自觉的）effort, then you can quite easily improve your ability to remember things. But even if you are successful, there are times when your memory seems to play tricks on you.
Sometimes you remember things that really did not happen. One morning last week, for example, I got up and found that I had left the front door unlocked all night, yet I clearly remember locking it carefully the night before.
Memory “trick” work the other way as well. Once in a while you remember not doing something, and then find out that you did. One day last month, for example, I was sitting in a barber（理发师）shop waiting for my turn to get a haircut, and suddenly I realized that I had got a haircut two days before at the barber shop across the street from my office.
We always seem to find something funny and amusing（有趣的）in incidents caused by people’s forgetfulness or absent-mindedness. Stories about absent-minded professors have been told for years, and we never got tired of hearing new ones. Unfortunately, however, absent-mindedness is not always funny. There are times when “trick” of our memory can cause us great trouble.
1. If you want to have a good memory, __________.
A. you should force yourself to remember things
B. you should make a conscious effort of practice and exercise
C. you should never stop learning
D. you should try hard to remember tings
2. From the sentence “We never get tired of hearing new ones”, we can infer that_________.
A. we enjoy hearing new stories about absent-mindedness of professors
B. we don’t want to know anything more about absent-mindedness of professors
C. we will never get tired of listening to new stories about absent-mindedness
D. absent-mindedness happens not only to professors but to many other people
3. In the passage, the writer seems to tell you______-.
A. forgetting things is serious and dangerous
B. always forgetting things is understandable
C. forgetting things at times is natural
D. the way to protect yourself from memory “tricks”
4. The best title for this passage is__________
A. How to Get a Good Memory
B. “Tricks” Of Memory
C. Forgetfulness and Absent-mindedness is Dangerous
D. Get Rid of Absent-mindedness
As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential (必要的)for a healthy mind and body.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital (有必要的) to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.
The amount of stress a person can stand depends very much on the person himself. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously important for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "flight or fight" and in more early days the choices made the difference between life or death. The crises (危机) we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but how little the stress is, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart diseases have established links with stress. Since we cannot remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we
need to find ways to deal with it.
1. People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because_____________
A. they do not know how to enjoy themselves
B. they do not believe that relaxation is important for health
C. they are traveling fast all the time
D. they are becoming busier with their work
2. According to the writer, the most important character for a good manager is his__________.
A. not fearing stress
B. knowing the art of relaxation
C. high sense of responsibility
D. having control over performance
3. Which of the following statements is true?
A. We can find some ways to avoid stress.
B. Stress is always harmful to people.
C. It is easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work.
D. Different people can withstand different amount of stress.
4. In the last sentence of the passage “do so” refers to__________.
A. "expose ourselves to stress"
B. "find ways to deal with stress"
C. "remove stress from our lives"
D. "establish links between diseases and stress”
The journey two divers made some time ago to the deepest point on the earth makes us realize how much of the world still remains to be studied. The two men went down seven miles to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean inside a small steel ball to find out if there are any ocean currents(水流) or signs of life.
It was necessary to set out early, so that the ball would come to the surface in daylight, and be easily found by the mother ship which would be waiting for it. The divers began preparations early in the morning and soon afterwards, when all was ready, the steel ball disappeared under the surface of the water.
The divers felt as if they were going down steps as they passed through warm and cold layers (层) of water. In time the temperature dropped to the freezing point. They kept in touch with the mother ship by telephone telling how they felt. Then, at a depth of 3,000 feet, the telephone stopped working and they were quite cut off from the outside world. All went well until some four hours later at 30,000 feet, the men were frightened by a loud, cracking noise. Even the smallest hole in the ball would have meant instant death. Luckily, though, it was only one of the outer windows that had broken. Soon afterwards, the ball touched the soft ocean floor raising a big cloud of "dust" made up of small dead sea creatures. Here, powerful lights lit up the dark water and the men were surprised to see fish swimming just above them quite untroubled by the great water pressure. But they did not dare to leave the lights on for long, as the heat from them made the water boil. Quite unexpectedly, the telephone began working again and the faint but clear voices of the divers were heard on the mother ship seven miles away. After a stay of thirty minutes the men began their journey up, arriving three hours later, cold and wet through, but none was worse for their experience.
1. The purpose of the divers' journey to the deepest point on the earth was to find____________
A. if there are water currents, and life in the great depths
B. if people can stand the severe cold in the great depths
C. if there are steps in the great depths
D. if the telephone works well in the great depths
2. The divers set out early in the morning so that____________.
A. they could return to the surface during the day
B. they could see at the bottom of the ocean
C. they could avoid the cold at night D. they could stay long at the bottom
3. As the divers went down to the ocean floor, the telephone____________.
A. kept working all the time
B. stopped working at a depth of 3,000 feet and began working again after they reached the bottom
C. stopped working at a depth of 3,000
feet and began working again at 30,000 feet
D. stopped working at a depth of 3,000 feet and began working again when they returned to the same depth
4. On the ocean floor, the divers found that________________.
A. there was no life but some small dead sea creatures
B. fish were swimming as freely as they do near the surface
C. fish were not swimming freely in the dark water
D. fish were not swimming freely under the high water pressure
LONDON (Reuters) ---Organic fruit, carried right to the doorstep. That is what Gabriel Gold prefers , and he is willing to pay for it. If this is not possible, the 26-year-old computer technician will spend the extra money at the supermarket to buy organic food.
“Organic produce is always better,” Mr. Gold said. “The food is free of pesticides(杀虫剂), and you are generally supporting family farms instead of large farms. And more often than not it is locally grown and seasonal, so it is more tasty.” Mr. Gold is one of a growing number of shoppers buying into the organic trend, and supermarkets across Britain are depending on more like him as they grow their organic food business. But how many shoppers really know what they are getting, and why are they willing to pay a higher price for organic produce? Market research shows that Mr. Gold and others who buy organic food can generally give clear reasons for their preferences---but their knowledge of organic food is far from complete. For example, small amounts of pesticides can be used on organic produce. And about three quarters of organic food in Britain is not local but imported to meet the growing need. “The demand for organic food is increasing by about one third every year, so it is a very fast-growing market.” Said Sue Flock, a specialist in this line of business.
1. More and more people in Britain are buying organic food because____________.
A. they are getting richerB. they can get the food anywhere
C. they consider the food free of pollution D. they like home-grown fruit
2. Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Those who buy organic food have a complete knowledge of organic food.
B. Some of the organic food is produced outside Britain.
C. Organic produce is not seasonal and tastes more tasty.
D. Organic products are those which are free of pesticides.
3. The underlined words “organic trend” means____________.
A. higher prices of organic food B. better quality of organic food
C. rising market for organic food D. growing interest in organic food
4. The news story is mainly about____________.
A. that more and more people prefer organic food in Britain
B. the production of organic food in Britain
C. the complete knowledge of organic food in Britain
D. good qualities of organic food in Britain